AN: Credits to Vasilisa, perfect_shade and Readhead for feedback and revisions.
1953 February 8th, in Formosa:
Kaoru Kazama twisted around just in time to catch an armful of opposing mage, their collision sending him tumbling to the ground. Turning as he fell, he quickly regained his bearings and pushed off the sod, sending him rocketing back into the air. As he rose, he saw one of his teammates catch the ball, only to almost immediately be mobbed by multiple opponents. The beleaguered mage threw the ball as they piled on, the panicked throw sending the ball corkscrewing through the air and away from the fracas.
Pushing his orb to its very limit, Kazama rammed an opponent mage out of the way as he stooped to intercept the ball before it hit the ground. As the reassuring weight settled against the crook of his arm, he twisted to throw the ball at the goal when someone grabbed his arm to stop the throw.
From the sidelines, a whistle blew, bringing all of the action on the pitch to a screeching halt.
"Time's up! Stop the match! We have many issues to address!" A translator shouted with Green standing next to them.
Kazama looked back at the mage player who stopped his throw and uttered a quick Akinese phrase, "You're not welcome in Formosa."
"Unlike you, I learned just enough Akinese to know when you are insulting us," the other player spat at him.
"And I'm not going to bother learning your language," Kazama sneered.
The other player charged at him with a magic blade, which is when all of the other players descended on them to fight or try to break up the fighting, soon joined by the staff members that were blowing their whistles and pulling people aside.
Green took a deep breath and shook his head in annoyance as the fight was broken up, the combatants grudgingly allowing his referees to separate them for the moment. While this fight was over, the bad blood between the two teams was only too visible in the ugly scowls and glares they traded.
The main languages in Formosa were Akinese and Hokkien, which meant some of the Formosan natives had to act as translators between those that could only speak in Akinese and the refugee players from the CSR. Although it was evident that while technically Hokkien was in the same family of languages as ones used in the CSR, the differences in the dialects were already causing problems with communication between the newly arrived refugees and the Chinese already living on Formosa.
Privately, Green found it strange that there were no augmented mages among the refugees. But, judging by the rumors passed on from the refugee natural mages, the mainlander military would more readily allow a natural A tier mage to flee than an augmented C tier one. Mage augmentation was the one key advantage that the CSR held over the rest of the world, and consequently the communist power was absolutely paranoid about monitoring their augmented mages.
As calm was gradually restored to the pitch, the translator tapped on Green's shoulder.
"What is it?" Green asked.
"We need to talk in private, away from them," the translator replied, shooting a furtive glance at the players.
Once they were sufficiently far away and rounded a corner, the translator sighed. "What we are dealing with is a sample of the current issues that Formosa is facing. You have elements of the Akinese and other local populations who are already not fans of the sudden presence of tens of thousands of refugees, and are really not happy about how that number keeps growing as more refugees slip past the CSR's coast guard. And some of the refugees for their part still hold a strong dislike of the Akinese."
Green nodded. "So we have to make sure the team is able to work together and have some success in the competition. All in the span of a few months. If we pull this off, this could help with the integration of Formosa. Or continue to plague it with the divides which the CSR will exploit."
"Indeed," the translator agreed. "We need to meet with the football team's staff because they are likely facing the same problems as well. Do you know anyone from Europe that might be able to help?"
Green paused for a moment. "I know two contacts who can help. But have you heard about the stories of the 203rd Mage Battalion?"
"Something about them being a complete nuisance for the anti-Empire coalition in the First Europan War?" the translator raised an eyebrow.
"The ONLY remaining elite mage battalion after years of war when the Empire's rest of their experienced mage forces were all decimated. I know two people who ran that battalion."
"How do you know about this?"
"Because I fought against them in that war and watched or heard about many of my comrades who were killed by them. For months, every day I had a long range standoff against them, not knowing when it would be my turn to die." Green stared coldly at the now concerned looking translator. "If I ask them to come over, we need backup players on standby in the event that some decide they don't want to go through the toughest mage training they have ever seen."
A few days later:
Green was busy observing a team building exercise when he sensed a faint flight spell usage.
Germanian flight spells.
He spun around to scan the sky and saw two figures rapidly approaching the field.
Green took a breath and said his prayers when the two ladies landed in front of him.
"I wasn't expecting the two of you to personally come so soon."
Tanya Degurechaff, the Rusted Silver and once-and-again President of Germania, chuckled. "I cleared my schedule. Visha and I needed a vacation anyways. And you were right to point out that the two sports teams could be an opportunity to help bring a sense of common cause among everyone in Formosa, or serve to drive a wedge if things go wrong. Anyways, how has the training been going after you sent off that initial letter to us?"
"I had to fire a staff member because they openly insulted a group of players. Turns out that staff member was very well liked by another group. I received an anonymous death threat sometime later. I am out of ideas at this point." As he reeled off his list of woes, Green looked past the most powerful woman in the world into a distant middle ground, falling back on his old "giving a report to an officer" mannerisms.
"I had expected the ethnic tensions to come up. The team's problems mirror the country as a whole," Degurechaff sighed. Green, for his part, was only puzzled at her complete lack of surprise.
"What do you mean you expected those problems?" Green asked.
"Oh, it's just from my cursory studies of Eastern Asian history. I did a bit of preparation before Formosa became independent." Degurechaff coughed. "We will need to sell them the vision of uniting against the extremist communists who would want to see them publicly fail. And put them through challenges that require them to work together."
"So, what are your plans?"
"Doesn't Formosa have plenty of mountains and beaches we can utilize for training?" Degurechaff tilted her head. Her lover immediately replied, "Of course", before Green could finish processing what the blonde woman was planning on doing.
"Shouldn't we stick with the sports training facilities?" Green hesitantly asked. By this point, the practice had stopped as all of the players had taken notice of the situation and were watching what was going on.
"This isn't a sports problem. This is a basic teamwork problem with some racism mixed in. I don't have time to provide individual counseling to each player on why hating others is a dumb idea, so I'll just run them ragged from the training and those that don't want to help all of their teammates get through the grueling trials will be pressured to leave, with the reminder of that should the Formosan sports team perform well in the upcoming games, a list of names of those who dropped out or were kicked out of the team will also be displayed for the entire world to see."
"Publicly shaming players? That's too far."
The grin that spread across the Rusted Silver's face was nothing less than sadistic. "And it is my understanding of Eastern Asian cultures that maintaining face and family name reputation is crucial. If they have a problem with that, I have an open door policy where any of the players are welcomed to visit me personally for us to reach an understanding of my expectations."
Green was rapidly growing concerned. "Please don't tell me your proposed training involves live ammunition. I have heard rumors about how you conducted your mage training."
"We won't need live ammunition," Serebryakovr replied. "We have other ways of challenging aerial mages."
"Where's the football team? I heard they also had similar problems with players hating each other." Degurechaff looked around.
"You plan on training the football team as well?"
"Both teams need to go back to the basics," Degurechaff said with a cavalier shrug." Besides, mages don't need mana for stamina training and I had no issue training the 203rd Mage Battalion, even without allowing magic use in the early phase. I see no reason why they cannot train alongside the football team."
"...I'll check on our painkiller supply." Green defeatedly sighed.
"Don't leave yet; what was your end goal strategy for the team before we showed up?" Degurechaff held up a staying hand. "I want to make sure that while I'm getting the team through learning how to work together, that I also lead them towards what you will be training them on afterward."
Green took a deep breath. "With the personal conflicts within the team and the minimal time to get the team ready for the competition, I was going to do what I knew best. Focus on simple defensive tactics and train the team on stamina. Make the opposing teams wear themselves out so they start making mistakes."
"Ah, so essentially what you successfully used against me back when we danced over in the skies of North Africa." Degurechaff grinned. "I have no problem with going with that. We can definitely help improve their stamina."
'I'm sure you will.' Green mentally resigned as the two mad women barked orders at the players with the translators frantically gesturing at the players to get moving.
A few hours later at a field, at the base of a mountain:
Kazama had always hated the mud. But right now at this moment, it was the only thing comforting his aching body as it shook with the exhaustion of many exercises, most of which involved running up and down the mountains, driven mercilessly on by their overseers.
Just as the shakes began to subside, the magically enhanced voice of that damned blonde woman who somehow knew how to speak in perfect Akinese shrilled across the hills. "Everyone up! Each one of you take a rope!"
A piece of rope slapped into his mudstreaked face, and with a weary groan Kazama staggered to his feet, joining his teammates in staring at his rope in blank incomprehension.
"Tie your left leg to someone else's right leg," came the instruction, "and make sure your right leg is tied to another person's left. Everyone needs to be formed up in a line. Both the football and aerial lacrosse teams."
There was a short hesitation from everyone until the blonde woman loudly sighed, grabbed Kazama's and a Chinese player's legs, and forcefully tied them together, prompting the rest into belated action. After everyone got the cue to tie their legs together, the blonde woman gave the next order.
"Sprint to the edge of the creek over there! Then back! You have 60 seconds! Go go go!"
'This is going to be a complete disaster' Kazama mentally groaned, and he was proven right when people stumbled and fell, bringing down others with them.
"Get up! Back to the starting line!" The blonde woman hovered over them.
"Should we try counting out our steps to be in sync?" The Chinese player next to him asked, which Kazama ignored.
After two more tries, Kazama could hear a scuffle break out, bringing everyone to a halt.
"Is that what you are going to do when all are faced with the same challenge? Tear each other down? Pathetic." The blonde woman spat with a disgusted look on her face. "There's no point in Formosa sending teams to the Francois Republic if everyone wants to act individually. At least it would spare the embarrassment that your families would feel."
"What do you know about us?! To tell us what we should be doing?!" Kazama shouted in annoyance.
The blonde woman glanced at him for a moment as she stopped hovering and softly landed on the torn up field, while still maintaining the voice amplification spell. "How do you think I survived the war in Europe, when it was the Empire going up against all of their neighbors and the Unified States?"
"You're an ace of aces!" Someone else shouted.
"And even an ace of aces can be brought down by coordinated mages if such ace was completely alone." The blonde woman sighed before pointing at herself. "That includes me. I relied on my mage battalion to survive a losing war when we were constantly ordered to conduct suicide missions that doomed many other mage battalions. We all relied on each other to survive, which included the worst mages in my battalion as were still vital for our survival. While there isn't someone trying to shoot you in a sports game, the same concept still applies."
There was a moment of silence among the players.
"Alright, that's enough training for today. But we'll be doing the tied legs exercise tomorrow, and I expect better coordination."
1953 February 22nd, in Formosa:
I sipped my tea as I observed Green's staff continue the team building exercises. Coffee was surprisingly hard to come by in Formosa, so I had to make do with tea. Unfortunately the staff members from Germania had a harder time adjusting to tea.
I just need to make sure they maintain at least the bare minimum training standards I set for them. I have to be back in Berun for the inevitable stacks of paperwork. The news I've read indicated that Germanian political parties were finally able to start preparing for the Diet elections, and I'm hoping those candidates have some semblance of a platform or policy other than simply rubber stamping everything that I do.
A well dressed Akinese man came walking up to us and bowed.
"Good afternoon President Degurechaff. I am here to deliver a message from Emperor Genka, in which he requested both of you to visit him at the Hayama Imperial Villa in Akitsushima Dominion to discuss policy."
Hmm, my return to Berun will have to wait a little bit longer.
"Are you going to Akitsushima Dominion just for the food?" Visha teased.
"That would be a misuse of Germanian government money just to enjoy food." I rolled my eyes. I looked over at Green and called out to him. "Let me know if you run into additional problems! I'm heading over to Akitsushima Dominion and I'll send you a telegram to check up on the two teams."
"I think I'm good for right now!" Green turned his head away from the ongoing training. The teams appear to be less grumpy working together."
1953 February 25th, in Akitsushima Dominion, Hayama Imperial Villa:
I wanted to enjoy a quiet, short vacation in Akitsushima Dominion after getting the aerial lacrosse team trained up to my minimum expectations, but Visha and I had very little alone time as soon as we set foot on the Akinese soil. I didn't see a way to politely refuse the Emperor's invitation to visit him at the villa.
As we stepped out of the car and walked towards the entrance of the villa, the Emperor himself appeared, opening the gate for us with a smile.
I immediately started bowing, Visha following suit, only for him to run over to stop me. "There is no need to bow, Tanya."
Wait, did he just call me by my first name? But why? This is very strange for an Akinese emperor.
I tried my best to mentally brush it off. "It is good to see you again, Your Highness."
He then laughed. "There is no need to call me Emperor or use formal titles. Just call me Nobuhito."
Wow, this is really strange now. This goes against all norms!
"...Is Nobuhito your first name?" I looked at him in bewilderment.
"Of course!" He smiled, then extended out his hand. "Come, I wanted to show you two around the villa."
I took his hand and we started walking, with Visha whispering something in my ear to tease me. But I wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing or what Visha was saying.
Why would the emperor act this strangely? This is like a CEO of another company greeting me, just an HR manager, as if I'm a childhood friend. Maybe he trusts me as a foreign advisor? Monarchs can bend the rules as they see fit, but I wasn't expecting him to go this far into the casualness.
"I remember a while back you advised us on opening up Akitsushima Dominion for foreign investments, and pushed for a trilateral trade agreement with OZEV, South Bharat and Akitsushima Dominion. I do have a question about the Unified States." Nobuhito looked at the birds in the trees.
Ah, that trilateral trade agreement. I think I spent less than half an hour going over it and then signing off on it before resuming going through all of the pending paperwork in the aftermath of Paul's abandonment of office. Now what could he be wondering about the Americans?
"What is concerning you?" I tilted my head.
"Their Congress is in the process of drafting a bill to restrict Akinese imports, specifically industrial goods. Their ambassador informed us that President Taft will sign the bill."
I could tell him to engage in a tit for tat trade war. Stop the American wheat purchases for example. But that could escalate out of control and potentially play right into the isolationists that would prefer to have the US cut itself off from the rest of the world instead of containing the communist threat or keeping the Albish and Frankish in check.
But the Americans generally distrust communists…
I smiled. Oh it was so simple. Modern advertising can be incredibly powerful in persuading people to do certain things.
"I can send word to my government to help search for some of the premier advertising and public relation firms in the US to develop a campaign blitz that pitches the Akitsushima Dominion as the vanguard against the CSR's communism expansion threat into the Pacific, and thus harming the Akitsushima Dominion would help the CSR. One advertisement could depict the CSR as a monstrous octopus threatening to swallow up the Pacific islands, while the Akitsushima Dominion and Formosa are shown containing the tentacles. Maybe they can hire a few celebrities to help sway the American public."
He rubbed his chin. "This isn't the first time you have done something like this, right?"
"Volksauto couldn't just simply offload their automobiles into the Unified States and expect people to immediately start buying them. Word had to be spread," I shrugged. "We could establish a joint public relations venture with the assistance from the Germanian government and private companies as we have been doing this for well over a decade."
Japanese media and food culture proved to be popular in the United States in my previous world. It made sense to have Germania be part of that sure success, and it would also help keep the Americans focused on the CSR if they have a more positive view of the Akinese.
"How do you think the American government would respond?"
I racked my brain to run through how Japanese culture was received in the US. A major complication is that Japan after WW2 was on a drastically different track compared to during the war or even this world's Akitsushima Dominion. The emperor may have been able to push through many reforms after the Akinese military thoroughly discredited themselves with the failed coup and lost all of their political power, but he couldn't do as much compared to Japan's situation where they were ground down from years of war and staring down the prospect of the Home Islands being invaded.
"They would not be expecting it, and their pro-isolationist politicians would find themselves in an awkward situation of being accused of helping the communists if they continued with pushing the trade restriction bill." I continued to smile. "A longer term solution would be to encourage culture exchange between Akitsushima Dominion and the Unified States, such as introducing Akinese food to the Unified States by subsidizing authentic Akinese restaurants. What does the Akinese animation film and graphic novel industry look like?"
"I'm not familiar with animation films and graphic novels." Nobuhito appeared to be confused for a moment. "Although I have heard of the Minister of Letters wanting to suppress some novel titled 'Mighty Atom', but I didn't see any need to be involved."
"That's a shame." I sighed, seeing that the Akinese still had some media censorship. "That novel could be a popular hit in the Unified States."
"I'll take that into consideration when I meet with my ministers." Nobuhito nodded.
We rounded a corner and saw a series of small pools with a staff inspecting one of them, with a building next to the pools.
"That's my marine biology laboratory that I built." Nobuhito gestured at the site. "I have published some papers from understanding some of the lesser known aquatic species."
"What's his favorite organism to study?" Visha asked. I translated her question to him, and he spent several minutes talking about the taxonomic class Hydrozoa and how some of those organisms are made up of colonies that work in sync with each other, rather than being a single individual unit.
"Marine biology, a great hobby from the office work." I remarked.
"And I'm assuming aerial lacrosse is your hobby to get away from the daily grind of the government?" Nobuhito smiled.
"Indeed." I nodded, then frowned a bit. "I would like to go back to what I was doing in my previous retirement, but the slow pace of the political parties back home in rebuilding themselves for the next Diet elections is proving frustrating."
"There are some who believe that you'll be ruling Germania for a long time."
"I'm not comfortable with leaving until Germania has a fully functioning democracy. I don't want a repeat of President Paul." I sighed as Nobuhito opened the door to his laboratory and we followed him inside.
"Ah, that man." Nobuhito reacted with disgust as he walked over to one of the glass containers to inspect an organism. "I was hesitant to meet him. I was certainly not going to ask for his opinion on what to do with the Formosan Strait situation and the inevitable conflict in the South Jiuzhou Sea."
"Regarding Formosa, do you have plans for their economic development?"
"I am skeptical of Shu's intentions." Nobuhito set the container back down. "Even if he doesn't end up running Formosa, he has significant political influence as there is now a large refugee population in Formosa, and denying voting rights to the communists would guarantee a civil war."
"We can show them a better way. Do you know how I dealt with the communists in Germania shortly after being elected Chancellor?"
"Economic stimulus?"
"Exactly." I nodded. "The only communists I had to take active measures against were those that were being funded by the Rus. For the rest of them, the communist fervor disappeared when people were no longer struggling to survive."
"And what will you be doing with Shu?"
"Let him keep rallying people against the CSR. We just need to strike a balance between keeping the illegitimate government constantly on the edge and thus wasting resources on keeping a large military on standby, while also preventing Shu from actually starting a full war."
"You intend on winning the conflict by making the communists exhaust themselves?" Nobuhito stared at me.
I smiled. "The best way to defeat communism is for their economies to stagnate and their own people to realize it doesn't work. They can keep crushing protests, but that only delays the inevitable abandoning of communism at best, or fuels an armed uprising against communism at worst. And it'll globally discredit their ideology when everyone can see that they would be signing up for stagnation and misery if they aligned themselves with the Chinese or Rus. Far easier than trying to whack down every single communist uprising around the world."
"Speaking of economics, the ongoing events in the South Jiuzhou Sea, the Lothiern East Indies and the surrounding regions have been concerning me." Nobuhito continued busying himself with caring for the specimens in the lab. "Maritime trade and resources such as oil are at risk if the regions descend into anarchy or worse, the communists gain control."
"I am hesitant to have Germania intervene in those regions."
"And if I intervene in those regions?" Nobuhito looked up at me. "We both know that the Unified States is largely self-consuming the oil they are producing and has already demonstrated their willingness to cut off trade with others to protect themselves. South America doesn't appear to be calming down anytime soon, and then there's the trouble in the Middle East. All of which impacts global oil supply."
Wow, this is a tricky moment. If I say the wrong words, he could end up repeating exactly what Imperial Japan in my previous life did. Picking a fight with the Dutch, British, Australians, Americans and the locals to grab the Dutch oil fields.
I took a deep breath. "Let Lothiern, Francois Republic and the Allied Kingdom come to their own conclusion of releasing their oversea colonies. And you don't have to annex territory to protect Akinese interests. Work with the locals in helping develop their economies in return for trade and security concessions. The less ammunition the communists have for their propaganda machine, the easier it will be to keep the communists out of the region."
Nobuhito nodded and hurried to finish up his lab work, then washed his hands. "We're going to head over to the dining hall for snacks and sake. I look forward to the continued success of our partnership."
This little foreign diplomacy win is a nice change of pace. Now I have to look forward to heading back home for actual work.
1953 April 3rd, in Berun:
When I walked into the conference room, I could see Dertinge' assistant putting up a poster of the counter-offer from the Americans, and the numbers on them. Ridiculous numbers.
"370 million dollars for our entire plutonium stockpile…" My jaw nearly dropped.
"With later negotiations on cost per pound for future deliveries. And about 4 billion dollars if Germania agrees to help them build the graphite moderated reactors and the accompanying nuclear infrastructure in the US. Any reselling of that technology would require our approval, and the BND has put forward plans to monitor for potential illegal re-export of the technology. They are well aware of our nuclear industry that made it possible for us to build so many reactors and want to copy it," Dertinge replied while Elya nodded.
"It appears their nuclear development was further behind than I expected," Elya smirked.
"President Paul's nuclear mania did help create a robust Germanian nuclear industry. Something about economies of scale." Adenaue shrugged. "If this deal helps us maintain the nuclear economics advantage over other countries, it's worth considering."
"They initially didn't believe me when I told them the quantity of weapons grade plutonium we had sitting in our storage bunkers. A few photos changed their minds," Dertinge chuckled. "I told them they can confirm it by weighing the shipments when we are loading the cargo ships, and the second time when the ships dock in the Unified States."
I'm concerned about building more of the graphite moderated reactors. But getting paid over 4 billion dollars would instantly solve the budget nightmare that I am facing with the simultaneous energy independence initiative and military modernization, and give me a lot of options, such as economic stimulus for the entire OZEV and other allies when times get tough.
"Did they agree to stringent reactor safety constructions?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I did warn them the last time we tried skimping on safety under President Paul's direction, we ended up having a very energetic unscheduled test on our containment structure along with the reactor ceasing to exist, and then spent far more retrofitting safety systems and containment structures," Dertinge shrugged.
"What's the progress on our new reactor designs?" I turned to Lergen.
"Everything is proceeding smoothly. We might have one or both submarines ready to launch by the end of this year, along with a trained crew to man them. The molten salt reactor submarine may end up having doubled turbines and gearboxes due to higher than expected power output from a peak sustained power experiment. It'll be more expensive, but the navy was willing to test how fast they can make the submarine sail. They estimate that it may be able to have roughly doubled the speed of the hydrogen peroxide powered submarine regardless of water depth."
Then Lergen frowned. "Although Admiral Gerhard mentioned that Captain Rickover was insistent on overseeing the engine room design for both submarines. And the two primary companies for manufacturing the reactor components have been refusing financial incentives to license their alloy trade secrets to another company."
I knew this Rickover was going to be a problem. But if he is doing good work, I don't want to impede him. And then there's the annoying problem with companies trying to make me dance to their tune. Free market is great and while I love to promote it, I won't allow that to dictate national strategic policies.
I looked at Lergen. "Remind Captain Rickover that the chain of command is also meant for checks and balances. It's one thing to mess up but have approval from the higher ups. It's a very different situation if a problem occurs and the higher ups were previously bypassed. So if he wants to avoid being grilled by me in the event of a mishap, he should find a way to be less combative with everyone else around him."
I then turned to Visha, "After this meeting, send an invitation to the two companies' owners to meet with me. I would like to clear up some misunderstandings since it appears my assumption that fairly compensating them with subsidies isn't going to work. They shouldn't be complaining when their business is about to boom with all of the new reactor constructions, both with our new reactors and building more of the graphite moderated ones in the Unified States."
Then a thought hit me. Only one of the two reactor designs would be used for our submarines, then for our aircraft carriers and power stations. What could we do with the other reactor design after sinking piles of money into it?...
"I believe we have another sales opportunity once we determine which reactor design is the winner." I smiled, although Dertinge's facial expression looked concerning for some reason.
"And that is?..." Adenaue motioned for me to get on with it.
"Once we settle on the winning submarine and reactor design, we can sell the other submarine reactor design to the Americans. And also to the OZEV members, the Akinese, South Bharatians and other allies at a discount, as both reactors don't generate plutonium like the graphite moderated ones." I casually shrugged. "Not only that would help recoup the R&D expenses, but for the companies that had focused on only one reactor design, they would be happy to get contracts from the US to build the nuclear industry infrastructure. For our allies, it would allow them to reduce their dependence on oil. That would also soften the blow when deciding which reactor design we will be using, so there wouldn't be as much politics and lobbying or even lawsuits in the lead up to the final decision."
"The Americans could catch up to us if we accidentally gave them a design that turns out to be the winning one" Adenaue glared at me.
"One of them will be tossed into the dusty history bin even if we don't sell it to the Americans." I shrugged. "If we try to iterate on both designs simultaneously, it would force us to split our resources and greatly slow down new reactor developments. And our budget is not infinite. The best we can do is run the submarine reactors to learn all of the associated limitations and problems with both designs, and determine which ones are easier to solve over time before selling the less promising design."
Elya cleared her throat. "I'm not aware of anyone else that is working on the new reactor designs that we have, or even the graphite moderated ones, so it would be very obvious who acquired the technology. I'll ask Shu if he knows anything about the CSR or Russy Confederation expressing an interest in stealing information from the Unified States."
"I'll make preparations for the plutonium stockpile and graphite reactor deal, and send the Americans a second nuclear offer when we make the final reactor decision." Dertinge slumped in his seat.
"Look on the bright side, all of the money we will be earning from the Americans might help us with potential future problems even after spending some of it on more immediate matters." I gave a questioning look to Dertinge as his body language didn't seem to make sense to me. "And do let our allies and partners, including the Americans, that I'll be at the international games if they want to meet me in person."
I'm actually looking forward to the aerial lacrosse and football matches. An opportunity to get away from the stresses of government paperwork to enjoy a nice, pleasant competition full of international harmony and good sportsmanship.
AN:
wiki/Taiwanese_Hokkien
wiki/Hayama_Imperial_Villa
wiki/Ministry_of_Education,_Science,_Sports_and_Culture
The Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (文部省, Monbu-shō, lit. Ministry of Letters) was a former Japanese government ministry. Its headquarters were in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo.[1]
wiki/Astro_Boy
Astro Boy, known in Japan by its original name Mighty Atom (Japanese: 鉄腕アトム, Hepburn: Tetsuwan-Atomu, lit. 'Iron-Armed Atom'), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka.[4] It was serialized in Kobunsha's Shōnen from 1952 to 1968.[5]
The 1963 anime series became a hit on television in Japan and the United States. Astro Boy has been praised for its importance in developing the anime and manga industry. It has been featured on numerous greatest anime of all time lists and has inspired many other influential authors in the creation of manga.
wiki/Hirohito#Marine_biology
Context on how much +$4 billion in 1950's money is worth today: wiki/Marshall_Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $120 billion[A] in 2021[B])
Without WW2, I doubt the Unified States would have their Manhattan Project at the same scale as the real life one: .gov/lm/doe-history/manhattan-project-background-information-and-preservation-work
At its peak, the project employed 130,000 workers and, by the end of the war, had spent $2.2 billion.
…the Manhattan Project became the organizational model behind the remarkable achievements of American "big science" during the second half of the twentieth century. Without the Manhattan Project, DOE, with its national laboratories — the jewels in the crown of the nation's science establishment, would not exist as it does in its present form.
$2.2 billion in 1945 is roughly equal to $34.5 billion today.